Coconino County Fair

Let's go to the fair--The 59th Coconino County Fair. It starts today and goes through Labor Day on Monday.

You can even leave your car in Flagstaff and ride the bus out to the Fairgrounds at Fort Tuthill County Park. See the details on the website above.

Whether you like the carnival rides, the music (The Bellamy Brothers will be there on Saturday.) or the exhibits and demonstrations, it should be a lot of fun way to officially end the summer.

Hopefully the weather will cooperate. Sounds like Sunday is going to be a cool, crisp day.

CLIMAS Southwest Climate Outlook

The August 2008 Southwest Climate Outlook from Climate Assessment for the Southwest (CLIMAS) at the University of Arizona.

This is such an easily digested overview of our climate conditions. It covers drought, temperature, precipitation (including Monsoon) and ENSO conditions.

Their summary may surprise you:

"The Bottom Line - Monsoon storms have delivered variable but copious amounts of precipitation. In many parts of New Mexico, monsoon rain is above average. These rains have helped New Mexico experience widespread short-term drought improvements. Extremely dry conditions in northern Arizona counties have harmed many crops."

To get more details from this report, you can view or download the pdf by following the link above.

Lowell Steele Visitor Center Milestone

A million visitors have been welcomed by Lowell Observatory since the Steele Visitor Center opened in 1994. Tomorrow will be a celebration. Get all the details here.

Sounds like lots of fun. Half-price admission. Free raffle tickets given out from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Raffle for some really nice prizes at 3:30 p.m.

Of course, as always, there will be tours and telescope viewing. Flagstaff is so fortunate to have such an amazing place to visit. I'm always ready to head up to Mars Hill. I'll see you there!

Early History of Flagstaff

Let's visit another book on Flagstaff history, by Platt Cline, They Came to the Mountain: The Story of Flagstaff's Beginnings.

You already know that I'm a big Platt Cline fan. And you know that I'm very interested in Flagstaff and Coconino County history. So, this is the perfect book for me--bringing the two together.

I was hooked from the beginning. Bernard L. Fontana, ended his foreword to They Came to the Mountain, dated April 1976, with this:

"At least as early as the summer of 1882, the townspeople were fussing over the need for schools, churches, and fraternal organizations. ...

None of this sounds like a wild and wooly western town of movie matinee and television fame. It sounds instead like a piece of already well-established middle America transplanting itself beneath the shadow of the San Francisco Peaks, 'The Mountain' to which men came. And the transplant has been a success. Today's Flagstaff boasts three astronomical observatories, a university and a renowned museum of anthropology and natural history, the Museum of Northern Arizona. As Cline remarks, 'the community's attitudes and values favoring [such institutions] were already evident in the 1880s.'

Platt Cline's concern for the present and his love for his home have led him to examine our common past. We are in his debt for having brought us, too, to the mountain."

This pretty much sums it up, but you really must find a copy of this book. You will be so glad you did.

History of Northern Arizona University

"This book ought to be read by anyone who loves Flagstaff and by everyone interested in higher education in Arizona."--Bruce Babbitt, Former Governor of Arizona, on the back cover of Mountain Campus: The Story of Northern Arizona University by Platt Cline.

You could very appropriately add to that statement: "This book should be suggested reading for all NAU students and parents." I would use the phrase required reading, but that somehow implies that this book might be something to look forward to with less than enthusiasm. Reading this book is anything but a chore.

Platt Cline loved NAU, but he also put on his newspaper editor's hat when he wrote it. The result is an extremely readable history of both the university which started as a normal school in 1899, and the town that supported it. This paragraph from the book's introduction gives you sense of connection between the two:

"The reader will early find that the school owed its conception and birth directly to the small town of Flagstaff, then only a few more than a dozen years from its founding, and I hope he shares my delight in how this extraordinary achievement was brought about by the community's leaders as they maneuvered astutely, patiently, with good will--and also a sense of humor--to attain their goal. It could only have happened in Flagstaff! While there could have been a Flagstaff without the school, there could never have been the school without Flagstaff."

Please consider picking up a used copy (it's out of print) of this excellent history. You'll never feel the same about Flagstaff and its Mountain Campus.

Class Time

Flagstaff K-12 students are settled into their new classes. And now Northern Arizona University (NAU) and Coconino Community College (CCC) start their Fall 2009 classes tomorrow.

It's an exciting time for students and the community alike. There's a new, yet familiar, energy in the air. College students do that to a town. We're glad to have them back.

When I had to search last week to find out when college classes actually start this semester, I realized how much we are all going to miss our live TV news reporting. In times past, I would have already known all the news of Fall 2008 at NAU and CCC, because I would have seen it on Channel 2 news. It's not going to be easy to keep up with what's happening on campus. And what about sports? How will we know what's coming up and how the teams are doing. We'll have to get that figured out.

But, for now, welcome "home" to all our college students.

Jerome and the Copper Town Ball

Just found out that Jerome, AZ is having its first annual Copper Town Ball on Saturday, September 13, 2008. That reminded me that we haven't visited Jerome, so let's take a virtual trip first. Three websites immediately come to mind:

• The Jerome Historical Society which gives a bit of history and information about the Mine Museum and the Society's plans to protect Jerome's historical heritage.
• Jerome Chamber of Commerce offers a really good overview of what's available to Jerome visitors. They've added a section of photos from the 2008 Home Tour--a good indication of what you might see on the 2009 tour.
• AZJerome.com is a commercial site and actually is the most informative website I've found.

According to AZJerome.com, today Jerome is a thriving on tourist and artist community and has a population of about 450, but it was once a booming mining town of 15,000, the fourth largest city in the Arizona territory.

Jerome is called "America's Most Vertical City" and "Largest Ghost Town in America." Sounds like a bit of information that might call for some more investigation. This town is interesting part of Arizona history that through ingenuity and hard work has managed to live on.

More Wayne Ranney Books

On August 11, 2008 we talked about Ancient Landscapes of the Colorado Plateau by Ron Blakey and Wayne Ranney. Today I want to share information about four other Ranney books:

• Carving Grand Canyon: Evidence, Theories and Mystery
• The Verde Valley: A Geological History
• Canyon Country
• Sedona Through Time: Geology of the Red Rocks

If you're interested, you can find out how to order them at Wayne Ranney. I got mine through Amazon.com.

All are small, but very readable and extremely informative, overviews of the geologic history of these four areas on the Colorado Plateau.

Thunder Over The Coconino

This Saturday, August 23, 2008, you can take a little trip up to the Grand Canyon Valle Airport for Thunder Over The Coconino. It's billed as their "4th Annual "Thunder Over the Coconino" Aircraft Fly-In, Historic Car Rally, and Chili Cook-off."

Sounds like fun. Imagine seeing vintage planes and cars, including a P51 Mustang and a 1929 Ford Tri-Motor, in an atmosphere filled with the spicy aroma from great pots of chili. What's better than that?

You can get all the details at Grand Canyon Valle Airport. If you need more help, the telephone number and email address are listed at the bottom of that page.

Don't forget to sign up to enter your prize-winning chili in the competition.

Grand Canyon Online

Courtesy National Park Service

Have you visited the Grand Canyon National Park website recently? Lots of information is available, including the Fall 2008 South Rim Guide in pdf format.

You can also grab the webcam at Yavapai Point on the South Rim, listen to Ranger Minutes, podcast, watch short video called Flight Into Canyon, or read Canyon Sketches eMagazine.

There is a great deal of history, including a priceless ebook, Polishing the Jewel: An Administrative History of Grand Canyon National Park by Michael F. Anderson. The only disappointment is that there isn't a lot of ecology and environment material, but Polishing the Jewel does make up for that.

Isn't it fantastic that we have the opportunity to visit the Grand Canyon as a day trip? A World Heritage Site, 1,218,375 acres big, right in Flagstaff's own back yard.

Sunflowers and Sunshine

After the storms, its a beautiful morning in Flagstaff. Hoping to hear that all are safe up at the Grand Canyon--flash floods and a dam break have led to some evacuations of Havasupai residents of Supai and tourists in the area.

Update at 6:05 p.m. today: Governor Napolitano announced all who are known to have been in the Canyon are safe.

Flagstaff

August 18, 2008

Arizona: A History

How about taking another trip by book? If you're looking for a good, but readable, book on Arizona history, consider Thoma E. Sheridan's Arizona ***A History published in 1995 by The University of Arizona Press.

It is extremely readable, presenting his unique view of the people, politics, corporations and events that shape Arizona history. But, he says that, "This book begins and ends with the natural world . . . nature in Arizona has made its own demands."

His is a very interesting point of view and well worth the time it takes to read this history of Arizona.

Flagstaff Loses Live News

Today, we lose our only local live television news. Flagstaff will no longer have live broadcasts to focus on the news, weather and issues affecting us locally.

After more than 30 years, KNAZ-TV will broadcast its last live news tonight. Instead we will have a Channel 12 northern Arizona bureau. It is my understanding that Channel 12 will include our weather in their normal weather segment. And sometimes local stories from the two reporters with the new bureau will be included with the Phoenix area news on Channel 12.

It's a sad day for news in our area. We thank all those who worked for Channel 2 and served the Flagstaff community and wish them only good things to come.

Ecological Restoration Institute at NAU

Just another short virtual trip over to NAU for a visit to the Ecological Restoration Institute (ERI). The ERI is on a mission that is directly affecting Flagstaff and the surrounding forest. You'll find lots of information about the contribution these dedicated people are making to the restoration and protection of our forests and our people.

This is how the ERI introduces itself, "The Ecological Restoration Institute (ERI) at Northern Arizona University (NAU) is nationally recognized for mobilizing the unique assets of a University to help solve the problem of unnaturally severe wildfire and degraded forest health. Focusing principally on landscapes where unprecedented wildfires threaten ecological and community sustainability, the ERI works to help cooperative efforts led by land management agencies and communities by providing comprehensive focused studies and monitoring and evaluation research and technical support.

Realizing that wildland and community health problems are interdisciplinary by nature, we seek to engage the university community across disciplinary boundaries—not just foresters, ecologists, and environmental scientists, but also engineers, economists, social scientists, educators, and beyond. In addition to the standard university functions of knowledge discovery, synthesis, and transfer, the ERI stresses a learning-by-doing approach—one that helps faculty, staff, and students gain real life experience working with land management agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and policy makers at the local to national level. Our goal is not just discovery of knowledge, but meaningful work that makes a difference for western forests.

The ERI was formally established by the Arizona Board of Regents in 1997 and by federal legislation in 2004. The ERI is funded by a combination of programmatic state and federal funding and through competitive grants programs."

You'll want to follow all the links on this site, to really understand how important their mission is. Don't miss this article, Thinning the fear from The Arizona Republic, June 30, 2008, if you want to find out about the progress and effects of forest land thinning in and around Flagstaff.

Flagstaff Festival of Science 2008

Mark your calendars for Zoom Into Science! Be sure to start now to make plans to attend the many events sheduled during the Flagstaff Festival of Science, September 26 - October 5, 2008.
Richard Preston, author of The Hot Zone and First Light, will be the Shoemaker Keynote speaker on Friday, September 26. Then for ten days, if your time is limited, you'll have to make some tough decisions about what to see. Among your choices are the NAU Campus Observatory, the Interferometer Tour at Anderson Mesa, several lectures at Lowell Observatory, the Rim Walk at Meteor Crater, and Dragonflies of Northern Arizona at MNA.

Get all the details at Flagstaff Festival of Science. All activities are free, but don't wait to make plans because you need reservations for some events.

Ancient Landscapes of the Colorado Plateau

Come October, we will be able to hold in our hands the landscapes of hundreds of millions of years of geologic history. Ancient Landscapes of the Colorado Plateau, by Ron Blakey and Wayne Ranney will be published. You can pre-order it at Amazon.com. I already did.

If you're a fan of Ron Blakey at NAU and the amazing maps he makes available to us on the Internet or of Wayne Ranney and his writing about the geologic history of the Sedona, Verde Valley and the Grand Canyon, this new book is a long awaited collaboration.

You can read about Ancient Lanscapes of the Colorado Plateau at The University of Arizona Press or at the Grand Canyon Association.

And there's more, the two authors will be giving a lecture, Tracing the Ancient Landscapes of the Colorado Plateau, as part of the Canyon Country Community Lecture Series. See the details on the website, about the lecture in Prescott on Sunday, November 16, 2008 and in Flagstaff on Wednesday, November 19, 2008.

This is really something to look forward to--one more contribution to our understanding of the Colorado Plateau by these two brilliant geologists.

USArray Seismic Stations and NAU

Northern Arizona University, Arizona State University and University of Arizona earth scientists will be able to analyze and interpret data from eight USArray stations. The news release headline, dated July 28, 2008, read: "Arizona Geological Survey Receives FEMA Grant to Improve Earthquake Monitoring & Risk Assessment in Arizona."

From the news release, "The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) awarded $493,678 as a Pre-Disaster Mitigation Competitive Grant to the consortium headed by the Arizona Geological Survey (AZGS) to improve earthquake monitoring and revisit seismic hazard assessment in Arizona. AZGS and the three universities are providing $172,000 in matching funds." This is the first time that FEMA has made funds available in this way.

This means that Arizona will be able to keep eight of the 58 stations which have been monitoring seismic activity in Arizona for almost two years and will be moving to another part of the United States in October 2008.

For more information see the Arizona Geological Survey webpage, Improving Earthquake Monitoring & Risk Assessment in Arizona.

So, once again NAU is involved in a project very important to Arizona and the local community.

2008 Flagstaff Route 66 Days

Just a heads up for Flagstaff Route 66 Days, so you can mark your calendars. You'll want to make time during this weekend, September 5, 6, 7, 2008, to head downtown for the car show, auto vendor show, arts and crafts show, plus lots of food and fun.

This is the event that will bring Route 66 nostalgia to downtown Flagstaff. You can get all the details at Flagstaff Route 66 Days.

Environmental History of the Colorado Plateau

What a fantastic resource for learning about this beautiful area. NAU website, Colorado Plateau-Land Use History of North America (CP-LUHNA) is described on its front page, "This website provides an introduction to the environmental history of the Colorado Plateau. It summarizes a vast body of research from multiple disciplines in an easily accessible format."

I can't begin to describe the vast amount of information available here. So, here are the broad categories covered:

• People
• Biota
• Places
• Tools
• Change
• Trends
• Research

The bibliographic database is temporarily unavailable as of the time of this post. But, I believe this is an unparalleled introduction to the environmental history of the Colorado Plateau. Congratulations to this group for an amazing job. This is part of the Land Use History of North America project by the USGS.

Route 66 Resources

Long View of Route 66 Flagstaff

If you're interested in Route 66, you might want to take a look at this Route 66-iana page by Sean Evans. You'll find Route 66 materials for researchers, resources at NAU Cline Library and some great information in Sean's own presentations.

This is the best resource I've found for information relevant to Route 66 and Arizona. Enjoy!

Protecting Northern Arizona's Dark Skies

If you want to know about Flagstaff and its designation as the world's first International Dark-Sky City, a good place to start is the Flagstaff Dark Skies Coalition. The FDSC says its mission is to celebrate, promote and protect the glorious dark skies of Flagstaff and northern Arizona.

The FDSC has a great website, giving an overview of Flagstaff's astronomical community, the battle to protect its night sky and the work of the International Dark-Sky Association and the Flagstaff Dark Skies Coalition.

You'll also find information about northern Arizona's lighting codes and lighting reference materials by Christian Luginbuhl of the U.S. Naval Observatory Flagstaff Station.

If your organization is in the greater Flagstaff area and you would like to help educate the public about dark sky issues, FDSC has a traveling exhibit available.

Don't forget to check the calendar of events celebrating the 50th anniversary of Flagstaff's first lighting ordinance. You can help celebrate with events through December 2008.

Northern Arizona Protected Place

How fortunate are we to have such beautiful places to explore!

One of those places is the 245-acre Hart Prairie Preserve, just fourteen miles from Flagstaff. The Nature Conservancy, its caretaker, says that it is home to the largest known Bebb willow community in the world, as well as old growth ponderosa. Elk, deer, and more than 40 species also claim the forests and wildflower meadows.

We can see this beautiful protected place up close, during the summer through mid-October, by participating in the free guided nature walks on Sunday mornings. This is the only time Hart Prairie is open to the public.

You will find all the details on the Hart Prairie page of The Nature Conservancy website.

Navajo Festival at MNA This Weekend

You'll want to be sure to plan some time this weekend, August 2-3, 2008, to visit the 59th Annual Navajo Festival of Arts and Culture, at the Museum of Northern Arizona.

This year, we'll be able to learn about the Navajo Code Talkers of World War II and the Navajo Lifeways. Seventy-five artists will exhibit their work. In addition, numerous shows presenting native music and dances will be presented.

You can see details of this celebration on the museum website.